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Friday, September 30, 2011

Once again, we are flashing back to our Summer Travel Journal. We spent the last week of our vacation at a family reunion with my family in the Uinta Mountains--a simply gorgeous part of our country. My whole family, minus one brother, was there...making a nice round number of 30 people in one cabin. It's a good thing we love each other!

The cabin we stayed in was pretty much waaaaaaaay out there...as in, no cell phone or Internet service. As in, so far out there that there were real cowboys (shepherds?) riding their horses and herding their flock of sheep across the highway. Nothing like starting a nice family reunion almost being slowly stampeded by sheep. The cowboy-shepherd guy kept telling us to just keep driving...but dude, who wants to run over a herd of sheep?!?

Baaa.﻿

A couple of miles later, this deer was running along the road, right next to the van. After a good race, it decided to stop and pose for a picture. (Sorry for poor picture quality, I was took it through the window.)

The sunset view from the cabin porch. Simply beautiful.

﻿We started our week with a Gone Fishin' party. Each family decorated a tackle box--and then filled it with yummy snacks like Swedish Fish and gummy worms.

Miss B picking out stickers for our family's tackle box.

I made this fishing-bobber-pinata for the party...and let me tell you the homemade paper mache process was a whole heckuva lot of work.

If I ever decide to make a pinata again, please, somebody stop me.

Despite the project being much longer than I expected, I was pretty proud of the fact that it lasted through 18 of the 19 grandchildren hitting it.

All that was left after my hours and hours of labor. Next time, I think I'll just buy one.

My mom did a cute carnival-style fishing game--where every grandchild got to fish for a prize. My dad was in charge of the child-with-the-fish-hook side of the pond...which was a very brave thing for him to do. I'm happy to report that not one person's eye was lost. (But we did have some close calls.)

My cute nieces made these fun fish-cupcakes for everyone to enjoy. I don't get to see my sisters and brothers and their families very often; so that evening in the crowded kitchen while we were making dinner for 30 and the girls were cupcake-decorating away and the laughter and chatter was constant...even though we were miles away from a decent-sized civilization and many, many more miles away from my house, it felt like home.

More to come...my goal is to finish our Summer Travel Journal by the middle of next week...we'll see if I make it!

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About Me

I'm a Midwestern girl who's lived in Missouri, Utah, Missouri again, Nebraska, Mississippi and Iowa. This is my story of life with my farmer-turned-professor husband, two exceptional little boys, and one extraordinary little girl who happens to have Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome. The stories you are about to read are all real; I couldn't make it up if I tried.